The life and experiences of a community college philosophy teacher, department chair and former debate coach.

Friday, August 21, 2009

Volunteering for stuff...

... darn it, Doom Days always makes me volunteer to do things.

This year I'm already on our common book committee. The Late Homecomer is an amazing book. The author is our writer in residence this year -- I've already seen her speak twice and both times were really amazing. Go here and here for videos of Kalia.

The common book committee is also the campus conference committee -- so I'll be doing that stuff as well. I don't know how much work either will be, but one of my pals is the chair of both and could use my help.

I also just volunteered to work on a project instigated by my college president. He's a very cool person who has a ton of teaching experience -- including teaching ethics :) -- so we get along. He's proposing developing a system by which faculty will perform advising -- and be paid extra to do so...

In the early 70s or so, our union chose an 8% pay raise, a 5/5 load and no advising duties over a 3% pay raise, a 4/4 load and no advising. We've been doing that ever since. I don't think it's a good idea for our students -- who needs a teaching-faculty advisor more than a community college student in 'I don't know what I want to do, so I'm just taking my generals' studies??

So, this morning, in a moment of weakness, I sent an e-mail to the folks organizing this little venture...

Maybe I need one of those programs that prevents drunken e-mails... but, mine needs to be set so that I can't send the e-mail before 7 AM :).

3 comments:

Hey, at least there will be money involved (eventually)! I'm kinda tickled that we are both getting into the advising biz (or maybe more accurate to say that you are getting into the designing advising biz?) at the same time. I'm sort of puzzled by the other kind of advising--you know, the kind done by people in student services, making sure the students take the courses they need to transfer, etc. I ought to post about this--and maybe someone will come and set me straight.

It seems to me that part of the counselor's job is pretty much looking at a set of courses to take and figuring out how long a student will take to complete them.

The transfer stuff is a little easier in our state -- if they want to stay in state and attend a public uni, because we have a list of courses that MUST transfer (by law..).

The thing is, there are lots of little details and it seems like the job of the counselor is to know them. The counselors also have training concerning mental illness and emotional troubles -- so that seems to be the job of the counselor.

On the other hand, a faculty adviser should meet with the students to discuss academic progress, problems, big picture goals etc... This is where our broad experience in academia comes in. At BNCC a significant percentage of faculty have Ph.D.s -- so we've been down the long academic road and can help there.

In my head, I see a collaboration between teaching faculty and counselors -- so the student has two adults to consult with... and the faculty member and counselor can have a good relationship and keep two sets of eyes on the student.

It may never happen, but -- if you can't have big dreams the weekend before school starts, when can you?